Etymology From Middle English grope, grupe, groupe, from Old English grōp (“ditch”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōpu, from Proto-Germanic *grōpō (“furrow, ditch, trench”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreb-, *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, furrow, scratch”). Cognate with Scots gruip (“gutter, drain, ditch, trench”), North Frisian groop (“pit”), Dutch groep (“a trench, moat”), Swedish grop (“a pit, ditch, hole, hollow”), Old English grēp, grēpe (“land-drain, ditch; furrow; burrow; privy”). More at grip, groove.
Northern England, Scotland, UK, Dialectal, Obsolete A trench or drain; particularly, a trench or hollow behind the stalls of cows or horses for receiving their dung and urine.
The groop is one foot six inches wide, six and one-half inches deep at one end … to carry off the urine into a reservoir under the Cowhouse, …1816, James Cleland, Annals of Glasgow, Digitized edition, published 2007, page 373:
Cleaning the byre involved barrowing out the contents of the groop, sluicing it down and rebedding it with clean straw.2008, Dennis O'Driscoll, Seamus Heaney, Stepping stones:
Etymology From Middle English grope, grupe, groupe, from Old English grōp (“ditch”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōpu, from Proto-Germanic *grōpō (“furrow, ditch, trench”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreb-, *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, furrow, scratch”). Cognate with Scots gruip (“gutter, drain, ditch, trench”), North Frisian groop (“pit”), Dutch groep (“a trench, moat”), Swedish grop (“a pit, ditch, hole, hollow”), Old English grēp, grēpe (“land-drain, ditch; furrow; burrow; privy”). More at grip, groove.
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Obsolete To make a channel or groove; to form grooves.